Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a serious debilitating multi-systemic chronic illness of unknown etiology, classified as a neurological disorder by the World Health Organization (WHO), currently affecting well over 250,000 people in the UK, increasingly including children and young people yet still widely unrecognised. In the wake of the pandemic there is now an overlap being considered with Long Covid symptoms and it is frustrating and bittersweet for those who have suffered their symptoms without acknowledgement and appropriate support for decades to witness the publicity and support for their Long Covid counterparts and justifiably want equal rights to research and treatment Up to 70% of sufferers are unable to work or care for themselves, and have suffered for years and 25% of M.E. patients are bedbound. It has been labelled previously as a psychological illness with those believing it is “all in the mind” and medical professionals admit to not knowing much about it. The symptoms and impact on those who suffer ME/CFS run parallel with “Long Covid” but outnumber those diagnosed since the pandemic began and many have suffered with little support or treatment for years or decades! This needs to change NOW!  Long Covid has many health professionals suffering the symptoms and has received attention in the media so currently has some financial backing for research and is acknowledged as being real. ME/CFS has been real for years but suffered from being mislabelled as psychological or an excuse for hypochondriacs and malingerers and most people have no idea how devastating it is.

Please sign this petition and seek justice for the sufferers who have been so let down by those in authority and get the recognition, awareness, research and appropriate treatment these people need along with those with Long Covid who have also developed ME/CFS.

More than 250,000 people in the UK and around 20 million worldwide have M.E. (myalgic encephalomyelitis), which manifests as unrelenting fatigue and profound pain.

The condition, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, has no known cure and is made worse by any degree of exertion.

Sufferers are often confined to their beds, unable to walk, and need help even to shower – an action that could then lay them low for hours, days, weeks or longer. With no support or hope of improvement.

But, despite the illness being recognised as a neurological condition by the World Health Organisation, patients are often branded hysterical, hypochondriac or even lazy and denied the support they so desperately need.

Many M.E. sufferers report having to give up employment and tell of a struggle to obtain benefits.

Now a study shows that people with M.E. can be more disabled than those who suffer from multiple sclerosis, a similar but recognised illness that affects more than 100,000 in the UK.

The paper, ‘Functional Status and Well-Being in People with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis’, was published in Pharmacoeconomics – Open.

The study used anonymised clinical data that was collected from people with M.E. and MS who have donated blood samples to the UK ME/CFS Biobank in London, and also assessed how their illnesses affect areas such as employment and income.

Scientists found that the people with M.E. were ‘measurably more disabled’ than those with MS, work fewer hours and have lower incomes.

Please support these people, it could affect any one of you or your loved ones and numbers seem to be increasing. 

Thankyou.